Discuss - Ep #1150

[Watching Project]

Robservations #1150

[DarkLady]

The opening scene with Randall and Roxanne is one of the high points of the series--great work by both actors. What a horrifying task Randall has to perform; how horrifying it was when his own sister attacked him. The three sibs must have been close as children; Randall insists that Samantha must never know their unfortunate sister's ultimate fate.

Trask in the basement: Surely once she recovered and was talking with Quentin and Randall, Julia must have wondered why Barnabas put Lamar down there, knowing that Lamar's father is entombed there too. Maybe it tickled Barn's sense of irony, but it does not bode well.

For some reason, the Daphne-Quentin séance thread isn't very interesting. Quentin sure can't keep his hands off her, though!

[DarkLady]

P.S. For all that they're completely estranged, Quentin also wants to protect Samantha from knowing about Roxanne's last morning on earth.

[MagnusTrask]

Yes, DL, that's a good scene when Randall dispatches Roxanne.  

Barnabas should end up accidentally changing history so that it's Q #1 and Daphne haunting Collinwood in 1970.  Quentin 1 can haunt Quentin 2.   That was my big important thought while watching the Selby pawing of Kate Jackson a la Roger Davis.   Selby's so much bigger, I keep being afraid he's going to break something....

For once, I'd like concerns about Barnabas's odd behavior to be countered with "You know, he is actually helping us...!"

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, the people questioning Barnabas' odd behavior don't see him as helping them. And quite possibly they don't trust his so-called help because they may actually see it as a pretense of help and as a guise to cover up some nefarious other deeds. And while we as an audience know none of that is true, they don't. The oddity of Barn's behavior is much more glaring to them.

The difference about David Selby's "Roger Davis pawing" of Kate Jackson is that, unlike Davis, Selby doesn't do it with every woman his characters are paired with. And with that in mind, in this instance it may indeed have been the directors who asked for it or Selby and Jackson's decision, as opposed to how it was with Davis because he certainly seemed to be incapable of not doing it.

And as for the Quentin/Daphne seance, I enjoy it. But then, I enjoy all the seances - particularly ones where shadowy figure appear. And if they quickly disappear,[spoiler]as will happen when this one is redone for Ep #1151,[/spoiler]it's all the more fun.

[DarkLady]

MB, it's just that there are so very many séances! But yes, this one will have a startling end. And that's a good point about Barn's odd behavior.

Barnabas has actually managed to change history, because now Roxanne will never come to 1970 Collinwood--and I suppose Sebastian Shaw never will either. It would have been interesting to find out how they ever teamed up.

I confess I never thought of Q1 haunting Collinwood, let alone haunting Q2. I'm not sure Q1 would be the ghost, though, because Barn and Julia haven't succeeded yet in stopping Gerard/Judah.

[Lydia]

I'm with MB in the matter of séances.  Whenever I hear there's going to be one, my heart leaps up.

And I'm with everybody else about that first scene.  Donna Wandrey was amazing - so different from the 1970 parallel time Roxanne!  And I enjoyed thinking about Donna Wandrey and Gene Lindsey, who may well have met for the first time just two days before for the read-through of yesterday's episode, playing this intense scene together.

Now we've got the people who know Roxanne was a vampire asking, "Who made her that way?"  Because of course it couldn't have just happened.  Carl asked the same question about - well, you know who - in 1897, but the question was never asked about Barnabas in either 1795 or 1897.  It always bothers me that every other vampire gets the benefit of the doubt, but Barnabas doesn't.

When Trask was down in the Old House basement and those chains first started rattling (which sounded great, I must add), he said, "I am a man of God!"  But he's not a minister, is he?  I suppose he could have meant merely that he was personally a good Christian, but generally "man of God" does mean a member of the cloth.  Oh, well, maybe he was bluffing.  As for the wisdom of Barnabas locking Trask up in the Old House basement, does anybody have any other ideas of where Barnabas could have put him?

[MagnusTrask]

What I meant earlier about people noticing that Barnabas was actually trying to help...  I wasn't speaking in general really.   I was thinking of these circumstances, where Barnabas had been the one who brought up vampires, explained what happened to Roxanne, told where she was, explained that it was the only way for her to have peace.... maybe Randall resents being put in harm's way on his own, at the end.   I'd understand if Randall started to doubt what Barnabas had said about it being her only chance for "peace", and started to think, if I'd let her live why couldn't we have worked something out...  but I don't think he ever questioned having destroyed Roxanne.

So, whatever questions they might have about Barnabas, why can't they all say, well, the important thing is that he's trying to help, right?  How bad could he be?   

[Lydia]

Magnus, Randall didn't really start to be suspicious of Barnabas until Roxanne, in her agony, proclaimed that Barnabas was the only one who could help her.  At that point I'd be suspicious too.  Maybe Barnabas was helping, or maybe he had ulterior motives.  In Randall's place, I wouldn't be able to say for sure.